St. Louis Pastor Charged with Child Molestation

A St. Louis minister has been charged with molesting an underage girl.

Jesse Claybon, the 47-year-old pastor of New Age Missionary Baptist Church, abused the girl multiple times between the beginning of August and end of September, St. Louis County Police say.

Claybon is accused of rubbing the girl's genitals and having her rub his. Police say they were each clothed during the incidents.

County prosecutors charged Claybon today with four counts of felony child molestation.

He has been with the New Age Missionary since at least 2015, when he was listed in state records as the president of the board for the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood church. The congregation had previously been in the hands of the founding pastor, who died in 2017.

The Secretary of State notified the church on January 3 its status as a nonprofit corporation had been dissolved, because it had failed to renew its registration.